August 23 - 26: Let the Superpod Begin!

In the afternoon of August 23rd, we met up with the whales we had seen the day before coming back down from the north. All the Southern Residents except the L12 sub-group were there, but whereas the day before they had been in 2-3 large groups, on this day they were all spread out. When we encountered them they were spread for many miles both north-south and east-west across Haro Strait. As a result we didn't see/identify nearly as many whales, but we did get to spend some time with a few animals we don't see as often.

A big spyhop from K16 Opus, who has a little beauty mark on her chin

10 year-old L106 Pooka (pretty sure - this guy and his siblings are hard for me to tell apart)

On August 24th the L12 sub-group came in to join the party, meaning we had our first full-fledged superpod of the summer! All 81 Southern Resident Killer Whales were here! I didn't catch up with them until late in the day on August 25th, out on our boat Serenity. We could see a huge group of whales in the distance heading out into the middle of the straits, but the only group of whales we got close to on this day was the L54s.

L54 Ino in the middle with her two offspring, L108 Coho and L117 Keta

All the whales hung out down south that night, which meant they were either going to head west and leave or Lime Kiln was going to be an awesome place to be the next morning, on the 26th. Turns out it was the latter! So glad I made sure I was there. At first just a few Js and Ks came by...

J2 Granny and K12 Sequim

But then all the other Js and Ks came into view in one tight, active group right on the rocks. Best. Feeling. Ever.

As they got close I switched to video, and I'm glad I did. I think it captures the moment a little better than stills would have. Someone had the hydrophone playing on a speaker, so you can hear their live vocalizations in the video.

After Js and Ks passed, we could see another huge group of whales to the south: L-Pod! Unfortunately for us they stalled out and turned back south, but not before L41 Mega breached a couple of times, impressive even from miles away! (He's the biggest living Southern Resident.)

Breach from L41 Mega

August 17th: I finally see K21!

By mid-August, the L54 sub-group was the only Southern Resident group yet to come into Haro Strait this summer, but there was one other whale I hadn't seen yet this summer: K21 Cappuccino. He's not around as much as the rest of K-Pod, but he had been seen numerous times, and I had even seen his regular traveling companions K16 Opus and K35 Sonata. I couldn't imagine I would go the whole season without seeing him - I've always managed to see everyone in the population at least once. Finally, on the evening of August 17th, we came across a trio of whales right near Open Bay - and it was K21 Cappuccino, K16 Opus, and K35 Sonata.

K21 Cappuccino, K35 Sonata, and K16 Opus

Cappuccino - such a striking whale!

The whales were really spread out. There was another individual traveling well offshore of us, but after a fleet of Canadian Naval boats left a huge wake, he got active surfing the wake and breaching several times.

I actually missed the first breach because I was distracted by this common murre who drifted right alongside us:

A little further south we were following alongside J27 Blackberry, who we thought was by himself. We should have known his little brother Mako was around somewhere, but we didn't see him....until he popped up right alongside us! I think I literally jumped on his first surfacing, but I recovered in time to snap this photo on his second:

The last group of whales we saw before heading in was the K12 matriline - here are K22 Sekiu and K33 Tika, two whales I've gotten to spend a lot of time with this summer.

K22 Sekiu and K33 Tika

It was another beautiful summer evening on the water!

Granny Comes For Thanksgiving

Yesterday was "American Thanksgiving" as its known in these parts (as opposed to Canadian Thanksgiving across the border), and while we were enjoying a lazy morning at home before starting our cooking I saw an exciting status update from a friend on Facebook. All it said was "Orcas!!!" but that was enough to get me out the door two minutes later and on my way to the west side. My guess was it was probably transients and that we likely wouldn't see them, but since it was surprisingly a sunny day it seemed like a good day to get out anyway.

When we arrived at Lime Kiln, the waters were quiet, so we continued south to Land Bank. I saw a boat parked past the point to the south - an encouraging sign. Then a fellow islander pulled up and confirmed that whales were heading our way. J-Pod was the rumor he heard. As the blows and dorsal fins started coming into view, it became apparent there were more whales than that - in fact, it ended up being a superpod!!

A surprising sight on Thanksgiving Day: orcas!

Once it looked like the whales were committed to going north, we dashed up to Lime Kiln, where they often pass closer to shore. It was definitely the right decision! As the first group approached us, they started getting active, and this pair of whales did not one but two sets of synchronized breaches, giving me a chance to capture the second one in a picture. Needless to say, this stunning sight doesn't even compare to what the captive whales do at SeaWorld - these two were breaching just because they can, possibly just for the joy of it.

Better than SeaWorld: two whales breach in synchrony, just because they can

The first group of whales was maybe 150 yard offshore, but right before they passed the lighthouse, they turned and angled in even closer. Usually I zoom in all the way, but this time I decided to try and capture the feeling of having a big group of whales pass so close, so this wide-angle shot shows some of the whales and the rocks we were standing on at the bottom of the frame:

Even though I love how these shots turned out, I couldn't take it too long and had to zoom in to get some nice ID shots. It was a nice mix of J- and K-Pod whales in this first group.

J38 Cookie

K21 Cappuccino

The lighting was perfect to capture these surface behaviors right after they passed:

K21 tail slap

A huge cartwheel by K16 Opus

It was also great to see the K13s, a matriline I didn't see as much of this past summer as I usually do.

K20 Spock with nephew K44 Ripple

K25 Scoter is a member of the K13s who was tagged last winter, yielding interesting and important data about the winter movements of the Southern Residents. (Read about where K25 traveled last winter here.) Unfortunately, the tag didn't dislodge as it was supposed to, so he still has remnants from the darts in his fin, which were visible yesterday.

K25 surfaces

A close-up of the barbs in K25's fin

There was just a short gap before the next large group of whales came by. It was mostly K- and L-Pod whales, with a group of young males hanging out together and all the playful youngsters in the L4 matriline.

More whales approaching!

I've actually photographed several double breaches before, but this was the first time I captured a double spyhop. (Earlier this year I saw a TRIPLE spyhop, but I missed it!)

The only boats on the water with the whales were two research vessels - here's one of them in the background of these photos:

The whales just kept coming!

The final group included some familiar "faces" from J-Pod - whales it's always especially a joy to see.

J16 Slick and J42 Echo

Tail slap from J26 Mike

The last close whale was J2 Granny, still seemingly going strong after the loss a couple months ago of her companion J8 Spieden. This was our first Thanksgiving in our new house, and also for the first time we hosted my parents. I wasn't expecting Granny to show up too, but she was more than welcome!

J2 Granny

The exuberant whales continued on their way north, and one of my last pictures was this incredible shot of a cartwheeling whale almost vertical in the air:

So, it pretty much turned out to be the best Thanksgiving ever with a surprise superpod - it looked like everyone but the L12s were present. Oh yeah, the food ended up being pretty good, too.

Superpod in Georgia Strait

This afternoon on the Western Explorer we headed through the beautiful Canadian Gulf Islands up to the north side of Active Pass in the southern Strait of Georgia where we met up with a superpod (members of all three pods) that had made amazing time booking it north all morning. All the whales except the L5 and L54 matrilines (7 whales) were there, but they were spread out over 5+ miles. Still, we did see whales from J-Pod, K-Pod, and L-Pod.

We got a nice look at the L2 matriline, made up of mom L2 Grace and her two boys L78 Gaia and L88 Wavewalker. From left to right in the photo below is L88, L2, and L78:

About a month ago L78 showed up with some pretty serious rake marks along the front edge of his dorsal fin. They appear to be from another orca. We see rake marks on whales pretty often - probably a result of rough-housing and or disciplining - but I have never seen rake marks as deep or extensive as those Gaia returned with. There has been a lot of speculation as to what he might have done to "deserve" this from another whale....the most interesting theory I've heard is that just before he returned with the rake marks, he and the rest of L-Pod were in an area where some offshore orcas (a completely separate population) were seen. Maybe there was a rough encounter between the two different cultures of orcas that, as far as we know, rarely interact with each other?

The good news is today I was able to tell that Gaia's rake marks are healing nicely. On the left side is a photo of the rake marks on his left side back on July 12th. The rake marks looked similarly severe on both sides, so you can see on the photo on the right how much they have healed based on a photo from today, where the marks are fading. As always, click on a photo to get a larger view:

There was another family group of whales traveling with the L2 matriline, and while I wasn't able to determine who they were in person, from my photos I was able to see it was J27 Blackberry and his two younger siblings J31 Tsuchi and J39 Mako. This is interesting because at the time we were under the impression all of J-Pod was up ahead about five miles, so I guess in reality the whales were "all mixed up"! Here is male J27 on the left and male L78 Gaia on the right:

The last group coming out of Active Pass was K-Pod, and our last look of the day was of a group of four K-Pod whales traveling off separate from the rest of the pod. The left two whales are 46 year-old female K40 Raggedy and her 23 year-old brother K21 Cappuccino. The right two whales are 24 year-old female K16 Opus and her 7 year-old son K35 Sonata:

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